Cross I-30 and the DFW small-bay market changes.
North of the interstate, the current advertised market is deeper and generally more expensive. South of I-30, there are fewer marketed suites and a lower overall rent basis—but that does not mean every southern bay is cheap or that every northern bay deserves a premium.
SpanVor’s expanded August snapshot identified approximately 1,500 advertised industrial and flex suites from 1,000 to 15,000 square feet across DFW. 880 published an annual asking rate.
Across the full cleaned snapshot:
- Median asking rent was $12.12 per square foot per year.
- Average asking rent was $13.66 per square foot per year.
- Nearly 58% of published rates fell between $10.00 and $14.99 per square foot.
Those metro-wide numbers are useful. The more interesting story appears when the market is divided by I-30.
North of I-30 has more advertised supply—and a higher rent basis
Among 1,052 suites that could be confidently located relative to I-30, excluding properties close enough to the interstate to make the split ambiguous, the north side accounted for roughly 2.6 times as many advertised suites as the south side.
| August advertised availability | North of I-30 | South of I-30 | |---|---:|---:| | Advertised suites | 757 | 295 | | Properties represented | 450 | 176 | | Suites with published asking rents | 440 | 190 | | Median asking rent by suite | $12.51/SF | $12.00/SF | | Average asking rent by suite | $13.71/SF | $12.15/SF | | Median asking rent by property | $13.07/SF | $12.00/SF |
The property-level comparison matters because one building can market several suites at the same time. Giving each property one median observation reduces the influence of a heavily marketed park. On that basis, the typical asking rent was about 9% higher north of I-30.
This is not hard to understand. Northern DFW has more established business nodes, more residential density in many corridors, higher-income communities and a deeper inventory of professionally marketed flex and small-bay product. Those forces can support both more listings and higher asking rents.
But the listing count should not be mistaken for a vacancy rate. More advertisements can mean more inventory, more active brokerage, more suite turnover, more properties with multiple bays available—or some combination of all four. This is advertised availability, not a complete occupancy census.
The I-30 discount is not uniform
The north-south spread changes when suite size changes.
| Advertised suite size | North median asking rent | South median asking rent | |---|---:|---:| | 1,000–1,499 SF | $13.50/SF | $12.00/SF | | 1,500–2,999 SF | $13.11/SF | $13.47/SF | | 3,000–5,999 SF | $12.72/SF | $11.00/SF | | 6,000–11,999 SF | $12.00/SF | $12.00/SF |
The 12,000–15,000-SF south-side sample had too few published rates to support a useful comparison, so I have left it out of the table.
The surprise is the 1,500–2,999-SF band. Its median asking rent is effectively at parity on the two sides of I-30—and is slightly higher in the southern sample. That is the practical entry-level bay used by contractors, service companies, local distributors, repair businesses and a long list of other small operators. When a small suite is functional and well located for its customer base, crossing the interstate does not automatically make it inexpensive.
The 3,000–5,999-SF band tells a different story. Its north-side median is approximately 16% higher than the south-side median. This is where the broader geographic pricing divide becomes much easier to see.
That is why I would not underwrite a DFW small-bay asset using one north-south rule. Suite size still matters. So do doors, parking, yard, power, office finish, visibility, access and the particular tenant pool served by the property.
Southern DFW may be the more interesting question
The current data says two things clearly: fewer advertised suites were found south of I-30, and the overall asking-rent basis was lower.
My read is that the next question is not whether southern DFW is “cheap.” It is whether parts of southern DFW are early.
As residential construction, population and business activity continue to push into southern corridors, lower-rent industrial space can become an attractive landing place for newer businesses and rent-sensitive operators. Those businesses still need to serve customers, store materials, park work vehicles and reach the regional road network. A well-positioned southern small-bay property does not need to replicate the northern suburbs. It needs to match the businesses forming and expanding around it.
The asking-rate data already hints at how local this can be. Among confidently located southern listings, Arlington had a $13.00/SF median asking rent across 62 published rates, while the southern portion of Fort Worth showed a median closer to $11.00/SF across 27 published rates. “South of I-30” is not one uniform leasing market either.
I would treat the southern thesis as a direction to investigate—not a conclusion already proven by one month of advertisements. The real opportunity signal will come from combining two layers:
- Demand growth: where homes, retail, hospitals, infrastructure and other business-supporting development are being permitted or built.
- Competing supply: where new industrial and genuine small-bay projects are planned or under construction.
If demand-producing development is expanding into a southern corridor while functional small-bay supply remains limited, that is a much more interesting signal than a low asking rent by itself.
The functional middle still earns a premium across DFW
The expanded snapshot also confirms the pattern found in the earlier version of this analysis: the practical middle of small-bay remains the strongest advertised rent band.
| Advertised suite size | Suites in snapshot | Published rates | Median asking rent | Average asking rent | |---|---:|---:|---:|---:| | 1,000–1,499 SF | 140 | 108 | $12.74/SF | $13.63/SF | | 1,500–2,999 SF | 461 | 279 | $13.20/SF | $14.65/SF | | 3,000–5,999 SF | 444 | 270 | $12.00/SF | $13.45/SF | | 6,000–11,999 SF | 346 | 183 | $12.00/SF | $12.95/SF | | 12,000–15,000 SF | 92 | 40 | $11.62/SF | $11.55/SF |
The 1,500–2,999-SF band carries a 10% median premium over the combined 3,000–15,000-SF group. Average asking rent shows a similar premium.
That does not mean an owner should divide every building into the smallest possible suites. Bad circulation, inadequate parking, unusable office layouts and weak utility infrastructure can erase the benefit quickly. It does mean the suite—not the building—is the practical unit of small-bay supply.
Key takeaways
- DFW’s expanded August snapshot contains approximately 1,500 advertised industrial and flex suites from 1,000 to 15,000 SF, with 880 published asking rates.
- In the confidently located I-30 comparison, the north side had about 2.6 times as many advertised suites as the south side.
- Median asking rent by property was approximately 9% higher north of I-30.
- The divide is not universal: 1,500–2,999-SF suites were near pricing parity, while the 3,000–5,999-SF band showed a clearer northern premium.
- Southern DFW may offer an interesting long-term setup, but the thesis needs to be tested against demand-producing development and competing small-bay supply.
Explore SpanVor’s live views of DFW industrial and small-bay supply and DFW demand-producing development.
Methodology
This analysis uses an August 25, 2026 advertised-availability snapshot. The cleaned cohort includes industrial and flex suites from 1,000 to 15,000 SF and excludes obvious office, retail and out-of-market records. Published rents are annual advertised asking rates per square foot—not executed rents, effective rents, vacancy or absorption.
For the I-30 comparison, property addresses were matched to location records and compared with official I-30 roadway geometry. Properties within approximately one-quarter mile of the interstate, properties that could not be confidently located and listings west of I-30’s mapped DFW span were excluded from the north-south figures. Property-level medians give each represented property one observation to reduce the influence of buildings marketing multiple suites.
One property can advertise multiple suites. Combinable suites and overlapping size ranges mean advertised suite square footage should not be treated as unique vacant square footage.
This article is educational and strategic, not investment, legal, tax, leasing or financing advice.